It's Time to Resign, Charlie

Like the Queen who Alice tangled with in Wonderland, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently isn’t interested in weighing the evidence before deciding the verdict on whether Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-NY, should continue as House Ways and Means Committee chairman. Rangel claims Pelosi told him earlier this week that “I am her chairman of the Ways and Means Committee as long as I want to be.” No word now on the status of the official investigation of Rangel announced Sept. 24 by the House Ethics Committee. Pelosi may have committed an ethical no-no by saying anything definitive about Rangel’s status prior to the ethics panel’s official report. She says ethics committee staff have assured her that report will be released by Jan. 3, 2009. Texas Republican John Carter has demanded that Pelosi “address immediately the very real questions this incident raises about whether your office has sought to improperly influence the conduct, scope, timing or any other aspect of an ongoing House ethics investigation.”

Meanwhile, the allegations of improprieties by Rangel continue to mount, with the latest being that the New York congressman helped preserve a tax break for Nabors Industries, an oil company, shortly after Eugene Isenberg, Nabors’ CEO, gave $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Affairs. Rangel said - presumably with a straight face - that the timing of his assistance was “coincidental.” Whether coincidental or not, we agree with Bob Edgar of Common Cause, who said in a letter to the ethics panel that Rangel’s actions “could undermine the credibility of Congress’ efforts to deal with our deep economic problems.” But Rangel’s lapses affect matters that go far beyond Congress’ ability to deal with the current economic crisis.

Rangel has reportedly sent solicitations for contributions to the Rangel Center to multiple parties, some with issues being decided by the Ways and Means committee. Those solicitations were on official committee stationary. He has also been the focus of media reports that he failed to pay taxes or report income on a property in the Dominican Republic, that he took improper tax deductions, and that four apartments he owns in a New York building receive public subsidies. Since the Ways and Means Committee routinely deals with the most critical and sensitive issues on taxes and who does or doesn’t pay them, it is ludicrous to think Rangel can continue credibly as chairman. Any corporation is now suspect whose executives contributed to Rangel’s campaigns or his favored causes and that has received favorable treatment from the committee during Rangel’s chairmanship. Rangel should resign the chairmanship promptly and avoid adding to the public’s record-low approval ratings of Congress.